This Karen TikTok Shows Just How Hard Working At McDonald's Can Be
TikTok may be the home of viral food trends and cute animal influencer videos, but it is also increasingly being used to call out entitled and rude behavior from "Karens," with the #karen hashtag receiving nearly 20 billion views (via TikTok). According to Time, "Karens" is a slang term for privileged, typically middle-aged white women who are often shameless in their displays of entitlement. They can be aggressive and rude, particularly to those deemed below them socially, such as many service workers (via Vox).
A recent viral TikTok video shows a Karen in action at a McDonalds. In the video, which has the captions "Angry Karen wants her meal" and "Slams cashier's shield!!!" you see a woman, who surprisingly has a mask on, yelling inaudibly at some workers. She threatens to beat up the worker at one point, before demanding her money back from the cashier. The Karen then threatens to beat up the cashier. After she gets her money back, she violently slams the plastic shield in front of the cashier and then walks away.
The comments sympathize with fast food workers
"What is wrong with people?" one user wrote in the comments to the video.
"People are being rude to us workers. What is the problem with you entitled customers?" wrote another, who clearly has experience working in fast food.
"AMAZING how nobody wants to work at a restaurant anymore! I just can't figure out why ..." another person commented.
Fast food chains are indeed facing a labor shortage, which is forcing existing employees to work even longer hours, leading to more mistakes (via Business Insider).
Even before the labor shortage, working at a McDonald's was tough. Pay averages just $11 an hour, according to Glassdoor, yet employees have to deal with difficult customers who are increasingly becoming violent. According to a report by the National Employment Law Project, more than 700 incidents of violence were recorded in McDonald's stores from 2016 to 2019. Recently, McDonald's workers have been assaulted with a fry scoop, an ice tea dispenser by a Karen in a drive-thru, and a manager even lost an eye after being attacked with a rake by an ex-employee's father (via Insider).
So the next time you are at McDonald's and things are taking a bit longer than expected, have some sympathy — and don't be a Karen.